20 Jesus lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said,

“Blessed are you who are poor,

God’s Kingdom is yours.

21 Blessed are you who hunger now,

for you will be filled.

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

22 Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.

23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich!

For you have received your consolation.

25 Woe to you, you who are full now,

for you will be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,

for you will mourn and weep.

26 Woe,when men speak well of you,

for their fathers did the same thing to the false prophets.”

for you will mourn and weep.

Luke 6:20-26 - World English Bible

After Jesus called his apostles in Luke, a crowd gathered to hear his teaching and to receive his healing power. In this context, he taught his disciples what it meant to follow him. Unlike the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12, the author presented Jesus speaking in parallels: four blessings vs. four woes. The Lord called the poor favored by God, while he warned the rich. God would bless the poor with the Kingdom (6:20) while the rich already possessed their reward (6:24). He would console the poor who lacked food and mourned through life's tragedies (6:20) while warning those who had plenty and who laughed (6:25); in the Kingdom, he would invert the fate of those two groups. God would bless the missionary who endured hatred and persecution for the sake of the Son of Man; they had the same standing at the revered prophets (6:22-23). The rich who sought reputation should beware; people gave such praise to the false prophets (6:26).

Notice the tension anticipation Luke placed between the poor and the rich. The poor hungered for the Kingdom, while the rich (mistakenly) thought they enjoyed the blessings of the God in the present. In his sly way, Luke warned his readers against either coveting such blessings of the rich or assuming God's favor only in the present. Instead, he pointed his audience to the activity of God in the future. This life might be good, but the Kingdom would be so much better.

How do you look forward to the coming of the Christ in glory?